Professional Considerations

Professional Considerations:

Authentic Middle Schools[1]

•Exemplary middle schools have common characteristics that have been recommended or recognized in Turning Points 2000 and in the Schools to Watch-Taking Center Stage Scoring Rubric. How many of these characteristics does your school embody? Do you have a master plan and timeline for incorporating these characteristics? How have these characteristics enhanced student achievement? How does the middle grades philosophy provide a solid foundation for standards-based reform?

•Is your middle school student centered? Do the students feel that yours is a caring
faculty? Do the teachers and other staff members make a deliberate attempt to develop strong, positive relationships with students, leading to higher levels of achievement?
Is improvement needed? What can your faculty do? What can you do?

•Among the common characteristics of standards-based middle schools identified
in the Schools to Watch scoring rubric, which, if any, require increased attention by your school? What specific suggestions do you have for accomplishing this task? Are any components missing from the illustration that you believe are essential? What are they?

•Consider your own school. Are instructional practices and support programs related to a comprehensive plan in which the pieces fit together logically? Are there changes you would like to make? Are there others on the staff who may feel the same way? What can you do about it? Will you?

•Are there instructional strategies you would like to use but do not because you feel that you are unprepared? Do they require others to participate who are unwilling to do so? If so, consider your priorities. Do you know how to use performance data to evaluate your instructional strategies? Would you like to discuss them with someone? Do you have colleagues who share your thinking? Are you willing to discuss your concerns with them? With your principal? If not, what prevents you? How can you resolve your concerns?

•Observers frequently remark that too little communication exists between the several levels of schooling: elementary, middle, and secondary. Is that criticism valid in your own circumstances? If so, why does the problem continue to exist? Who is accountable for improving the situation? How has the need for better articulation been magnified because of content standards, grade-level performance standards, the High School Exit Examination, promotion and retention policies? What part of the problem is your responsibility? What actions do you think would help most to ensure that education becomes a seamless process in your school district?

•Instructional leadership is often shared among teachers, and the principal is at the periphery (because of many other demands). If the principal takes an active role in curriculum, standards-based instruction, and assessment, what are the benefits to teachers and students? What types of support and training does the principal need to make that happen?

[1] Taking Center Stage. 2001, California Department of Education, p. 106